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NJ

ObamaCare is a prescription for a Democratic headache in 2014

Not only will voters be alienated by changes they dislike, the thinking goes, they’ll also be confronted by the litany of promises Democratic lawmakers made before and after it became law. Rob Jesmer, who served as executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2008 and 2010, suggested Republicans might have an easier time making their case in the next election cycle than in 2010.

“Even then, it was all theory,” said Jesmer, who is now a Republican consultant. “What I like about what’s happening in 2014 is we can use statements that were said in 2010 by vulnerable Democrats. They said, ‘You could keep your doctor, and your insurance premiums won’t rise.’ Well, the rubber is going to meet the road in 18 months. Many of them will prove largely not true.”

Even before most of the changes take effect, and despite predictions from the White House that the law would become more popular after passage, the public remains cold toward Obamacare. No more than 45 percent of the public has viewed it favorably in the last two and a half years, according to a monthly tracking poll by the Kaiser Family Health Foundation, and only 37 percent approved of it this month. Even debunked myths about the law, such as the inclusion of so-called “death panels,” persist: Just 39 percent of the public correctly believes Obamacare includes no such provision.

The ground is fertile, then, for the issue to reemerge in 2014, because the midterm battleground map will largely be fought where Obamacare is least popular.

Blowback

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Even debunked myths about the law, such as the inclusion of so-called “death panels,” persist: Just 39 percent of the public correctly believes Obamacare includes no such provision.

Just because they’re not expressly called “death panels” in the law doesn’t mean they’re not included in the law.

IPAB is the board (or “panel,” if you will) of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who are going to decide which procedures and medicines are covered under Obamacare, and which are not. It’s just a matter of time before people start dying because of IPAB’s cost/benefits decisions.

But don’t dare call IPAB a “death panel” — even though that’s exactly what it is.

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Now be nice, that’s what passes for journalism these days. Alex and Beth, did a really hard Google search of the law in between sips of their non-fat latte, and no where did they find a passage entitled “Death Panel,” therefore the term “Death Panel,” is just something the crazy Sarah Palin made up.
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See? Real journalism.

Even debunked myths about the law, such as the inclusion of so-called “death panels,” persist: Just 39 percent of the public correctly believes Obamacare includes no such provision

Independent Payment Advisory Board

The Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, is a fifteen-member United States Government agency created in 2010 by sections 3403 and 10320 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which has the explicit task of achieving specified savings in Medicare without affecting coverage or quality.[1] Under previous and current law, changes to Medicare payment rates and program rules are recommended by MedPAC but require an act of Congress to take effect. The new system grants IPAB the authority to make changes to the Medicare program with the Congress being given the power to overrule the agency’s decisions through supermajority vote.

Beginning in 2013, the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will determine in particular years the projected per capita growth rate for Medicare for a multi-year period ending in the second year thereafter (the “implementation year”). If the projection exceeds a target growth rate, IPAB must develop a proposal to reduce Medicare spending in the implementation year by a specified amount. If it is required to develop a proposal, the Board must submit that proposal in January of the year before the implementation year; thus, the first proposal could be submitted in January 2014 to take effect in 2015. If the Board fails to submit a proposal that the Chief Actuary certifies will achieve the savings target, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must submit a proposal that will achieve that amount of savings. The Secretary must then implement the proposal unless Congress enacts resolutions made to override the Board’s (or the Secretary’s) decisions under a fast-track procedure that the law sets forth.[1]

We ran Romney in 2012. Therefore, we have zero credibility on healthcare in 2014.

steebo77 on March 22, 2013 at 3:00 PM

pretty much remember people like AnnColture saying how great romneycare was. How she and people like her can turn around and be agains tObamacare is beyond me. Now people like Cruz, Paul, Palin tea party members of congress they can be against it since they never got on the romneycARE IS A STATE issue bandwagon.

The GOPE on the other hand are tainted and it is why the minority leader and speaker have tried to push the idea that Obamacare is the law of the land and its over and we need to move on and not fight it.

2009 Kaiser Health News article predicted primary care doctors would likely see benefits from an “independent Medicare commission because the panel would be more likely to increase their fees and lower specialists’ rates”.[13] While payment cuts to hospitals and hospices are off-limits until 2020, and clinical laboratories are off limits until 2016, physician fees may be cut unless a doc fix to Medicare’s sustainable growth rate formula makes those cuts off limits.[3] Other “savings would have to be found in private Medicare Advantage plans, Medicare’s Part D prescription-drug program, or spending on skilled-nursing facilities, home-based health care, dialysis, durable medical equipment, ambulance services, and services of ambulatory surgical centers”.[3] According to the New England Journal of Medicine, holding off creation of accountable care organizations (ACOs) is likely to be a bad long term strategy for physicians.[14]

so first victims of death panels will be the old on drugs, those requiring home based health care, the dialysis patients, those needed rushed to the hospital (because you you think about it if they never get to the hospital there is no additional charge to medicare) Dies in transit.

so if your old on prescriptions and might need an ambulance good luck.

IPAB is composed of fifteen members appointed by the President, subject to Senate confirmation. The Secretary of HHS, the Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration serve ex officio as nonvoting members.[15] In making the appointments, the President consults with the Majority Leader of the Senate concerning the appointment of three members; the Speaker of the House of Representatives concerning the appointment of three members, the Minority Leader of the Senate concerning the appointment of three members, and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives concerning the appointment of three members.[16]

Already happening. I should have book marked the article but a 2012 study of Medicare outcomes leading up to that 30 day clause shows that re-admittance to hospitals within 30 days for medicare patients has gone down. The cause is that many more patients are dying within that period.

We have a disabled friend in our area that went to the hospital over acute bowel pains and was discharged by the doctor with the words it all in your head. 3 days later we took her to a different hospital and it turned out she had an obstructed bowel.

The GOPE on the other hand are tainted and it is why the minority leader and speaker have tried to push the idea that Obamacare is the law of the land and its over and we need to move on and not fight it.

unseen on March 22, 2013 at 3:08 PM

Or it’s because they like and support it like they do with every other thing the Obama administration does. If there hadn’t been a gigantic lobbying push by the NRA they would have helped Obama push gun control through.

Or it’s because they like and support it like they do with every other thing the Obama administration does. If there hadn’t been a gigantic lobbying push by the NRA they would have helped Obama push gun control through.

Doomberg on March 22, 2013 at 3:47 PM

oh I would say that’s why they did nothing to repeal it. But all the talk lately form the minority leader and speaker about forgetting obamacare and it being time to move on is because they know they are tainted and could be just as much a risk as the dems…